Some Turkish papers refuse to run gay rights association ad

01/04/2011 | Writer: KAOS GL

March 13 2011
Hürriyet Daily News

An association dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transvestite and transsexual rights has had an advertisement refused by three Turkish papers, daily Taraf reported Sunday.

Every association in Turkey must hold a general board meeting once a year and announce it with ads in the press, as required by law. Lambdaistanbul prepared an ad featuring the location, hour and program of their meeting, starting with the line, "From Lambdaistanbul, the association of solidarity between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite and transsexual women and men."

Association lawyer Fırat Söyle said the company they hired to place the ad in the papers told them the dailies Star, Akşam and Posta refused to print the ad, saying, "It is not in harmony with the paper's logic." The association noted that this was discrimination.

Taraf stated that when they tried to reach the mentioned papers, Star did not comment while Posta said the refusal to run the ad was about procedure, not the content, and said they would talk to the association on Monday. Akşam expressed regret, said its ad service had refused the ad without knowing the content and added, "It should have been printed."

Original Link of this News Article: Some Turkish papers refuse to run gay rights association ad
Tags: human rights